kLeaps: Inspiring School Leaders and Parents to Level Up Education in Johor

What an amazing weekend we had in Johor for our third kLeaps Conference this year! This year as we aim to inspire and motivate schools to level up and raise the bar in education, we saw just how much schools in Johor have achieved and we are so encouraged by their successes.

“Earlier this year, in the FrogPlay World Championships, we saw Malaysian students competing with students from 13 other countries and performing tremendously well. I’m proud to say that Johor has even made it on an international level. SK Taman Bukit Indah won second place, ahead of schools from the UK and USA,” said Lou, our Executive Director.

With all these successes year after year, we then asked ourselves, what next? kLeaps Johor was aimed to encourage schools to come together collaboratively and collectively as a community to take education to the next level by inspiring school leaders and parents!

“We are glad to be working with FrogAsia in organising kLeaps today and we are sure that it will benefit teachers, students and parents in Johor. We believe that ensuring the success of the Frog Virtual Learning Environment and 21st Century education is a collaborative effort not only from teachers but also parents and the community. Through the application of Frog VLE, I can see that it will support the education infrastructure and help achieve the goals of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025,” said Mr Azman bin Adnan, Deputy Director of the Johor State Education Department.

Besides the Deputy Director of the Johor State Education Department, the conference also saw the attendance of Datin Kathleen Chew Wai Lin, Programme Director of YTL Foundation, Ms Sallina binti Hussain, Academic Sector Chief at the Johor State Education Department and Ms Bahariah binti Temu, Sector Chief of Information and ICT at the Johor State Education Department.

Throughout the conference, we invited school leaders, teachers and parents from schools across Johor to share with our participants. Puan Kartinie, Headmistress of SK Seri Bertam, shared during her Q&A session with Lou on how she was initially against Frog but had a change of heart and saw how Frog had bettered her school’s teaching and learning. “With the help of my ICT teacher, I started a Buddy System that encouraged peer-to-peer mentoring for teachers and students. Teachers and students who were better at using Frog would help their peers who are less fluent with Frog,” said Puan Kartinie.

Puan Hjh Sabariah, Headmistress of SMK Ulu Tiram, shared the importance of school principals in initiating the first step towards change before the school community can follow suit. “I believe that school principals need to be aware and start using Frog before we can inspire teachers to use it. The success of a school is dependent on head teachers first learning and leading by example,” said Puan Hjh Sabariah.

During the Lightning Talk for teachers and parents, Puan Siti Sariyana, Frog Admin of SK Sg Abong, and Puan Emy, parent and PIBK committee of SK Sg Abong, shared about the roles teachers and parents need to play in order to encourage the use Frog in school and at home. “It is very important for teachers and parents to collaborate and work together in order to ensure that a student’s learning does not just end in school, but will continue at home as well,” said Puan Siti Sariyana.

“Parents see the benefits of Frog and how it has impacted our children’s education positively. I speak from a parent’s perspective that my daughter is now achieving better grades in school - from D to A in Mathematics! Not only that, she is utilising time better with FrogPlay, allowing her to do revision and play games at the same time,” said Puan Emy, parent and PIBK committee of SK Sg Abong.

And what is FrogAsia event without some fun and games! Participants then adjourned to the kLeaps Carnival where selected Johor schools showcased their best practices in utilising Boost Sites and FrogPlay Quizzes for teaching and learning. We saw how engaged participants were when they raced to finish the kLeaps Challenge! The event ended on a high note when our lucky winners walked away with exclusive prizes from the lucky draw.

We want to say a big thank you to the Johor State Education Department for collaborating with us to make this event a huge success! As we close this year’s chapter for kLeaps, stay tune for more exciting things to come as we begin to POWER UP for our next Leaps of Conference!